The Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce Inc.  will lead a class suit against the implementation of Republic Act 8749, or the Axle Overloading Law, in Negros Oriental.

This was the decision reached in a meeting initiated by the NOCCI Board of Directors Friday with the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Land Transportation Office, Rep. George Arnaiz (Neg. Or., 2nd District)  and truckers in the province, mostly sugar planters.

The decision was reached following complaints from truckers about the seeming inequality in the implementation of the law, because there is only one weighing scale and this is located in Barangay Tamisu in Bais City, between two sugar mills.

Trucks from the south loaded with sugarcane, for instance, are not weighed if they mill with the Central Azucarera de Bais but are weighed if they are bound for the United Robina Sugar Milling Company  in Manjuyod.

Sugarcane trucks from towns north of Bais  are also not weighed if they mill with URSUMCO but are weighed if they mill with CAB.

And they are usually found to be in violation of the 13,500 kilograms per axle limit under this law.

 “In the Philippines, a truck good for five tons is loaded with 15 tons and a truck intended to carry only 10 tons is loaded with 25 tons,”  Arnaiz noted.

Manager Mario Palma, of URSUMCO, also said that while the law is supposed to protect the highways in the province,  “what is being protected is only the 15-kilometer road between CAB to URSUMCO.”

The implementation of this law, Palma said, is unfair to URSUMCO because most trucks are not penalized.

Other truckers also said that the presence of this weighing scale is also encouraging corruption at the DPWH weigh station.

Alberta Janine Lawas, Land Transportation Office chief of Bais said she, too, has heard of such reports but no one has so far come forward to make a formal complaint.

But she warned that any DPWH personnel who accepts bribes from truckers will have their authority from the LTO to issue Temporary Operators’ Permits  revoked.

Another problem in the implementation of this law is the incompatibility of the data between the DPWH and the LTO.  It was learned during Friday’s meeting that what the DPWH determines to be overloading is still not a violation by LTO standards.

As a result of this incompatibility, those who are issued a TOP by the DPWH cannot be issued an official receipt at the LTO, because the computer would not recognize the DPWH data as a violation.

Arnaiz encouraged the truckers to seek a Temporary Restraining Order from the court.  “There is no way we can suspend the implementation of the law. Go ahead with the case. I am sure you can get a TRO,” he said.

Florian Alcantara, a director of NOCCI, volunteered to lead a team of lawyers in handling the case. “Once the law will be declared unconstitutional, it cannot be implemented,” he said.*AP

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